The second phase of the municipal elections saw a fairly good voter turnout at 66.70 per cent, but was this a safe election? While the political masters and their candidates go into a huddle and discuss post-election numbers, Goa fears a catastrophic situation because this election was all about greed for power, selfishness, political upmanship, and had literally nothing to do with the safety of citizens.
Against a scary Covid environment where deaths and positive cases are mounting by the day, people across age groups, including the vulnerable sections, were motivated to step out and vote. Political teams have left no stone unturned in getting people out. From distributing masks and sanitisers to arranging vehicles to ferry voters, political ambitions were so overpowering that the fear of getting infected was muted.
Citizens across sections and age groups have come out in numbers to exercise their mandate mindful of the fear outdoors, and that speaks a lot about this high-stakes contest. The intensity showed that there was much more beyond civic victories in an election that is billed as a semi-final to the Assembly elections of 2022. Sadly, the resolve to win was so dominant and overpowering that scant respect was paid to the lives of people and their safety. Even the State Election Commission which had vowed to conduct a safe election with necessary protocols in place once again failed to live up to its promise.
If the election machinery allowed blatant violations of social distancing at booths, candidates and several leaders who were tested positive and even suspects, concealed their status and continued campaigning actively reaching out to people to secure votes. This has exposed an ugly and inhumane side of politics and the insatiable greed of power of a few.
These selfish, immoral leaders and candidates, to whichever party they belong have no right to point fingers at any shortcomings elsewhere when they acted like ‘suicide bombers’ to pursue selfish political gains, betraying the trust of people.
While Goa continues to mourn the deaths of innocent lives, consumed in the Covid tsunami in a quick time and when hundreds of others are going through anguish and pain in healthcare centres, this phase of civic election sends out a grim reminder that the worst is yet to come. While the government has thrown open the floodgates by its faults of ‘omission’, a section of political leaders, have taken this election to a different level. Many campaigners who were tested positive and were supposed to be under quarantine have physically reached out to people, while some others have undergone a test as soon as voting concluded.
The second phase of the election has turned out to be a ticking time bomb ready to explode. And it’s not over yet, with the post counting frenzy still to come on April 26. This dance of democracy will have drastic consequences on the people and bring the State to its knees.
